New Form of Deadly Heroin Hits New England Streets

Massachusetts (WGGB)– A new, deadly form of heroin is hitting the streets of New England.

The heroin is laced with a powerful opiate called Fentanyl.

Fentanyl laced heroin has been identified in deaths in Boston and Taunton and could be responsible for a spike in heroin overdose deaths in this region,”With heroin you’re always chasing that next high, when that high is not good enough you’re going to chase something more than that,” says Greenfield Police Chief Robert Haigh.

Chief Haigh says when you buy drugs on the street you don’t know exactly what you’re getting , that it could be a deadly dose of heroin.

Haigh along with Robert Merrigan and Marisa Hebble are members of an area Opioid Education and Awareness Task Force which includes a wide range of community leaders coming together to address the drug addiction overdose problem.

And heroin possibly laced with additives like Fentanyl are a concern,”Fentanyl is 100 times more potent than morphine,” says Chief Haigh.

And Fentanyl combined with heroin can be a deadly combination and could be part of the reason for a spike in heroin deaths in this region,” Certainly the 91 corridor in relationship to Hartford, Boston, to this area leads us to believe that there could be cases where there were additives put into the heroin<‘ says Robert Merrigan.

The task force is keeping statistics showing the magnitude of the heroin problem,”It’s a serious problem, people are dying so it’s a serious problem and I think we’ve only started to scratch the surface I think the overdoses are just the tip of the iceberg,” says Task Force Member Marisa Hebble.

The heroin addiction problem continues to be a difficult one to attack, the opiate task force realizes it’s not just a police problem it is a community wide problem and they’ve engaged all elements of the community in this battle,”It’s going to be a marathon, not a sprint, this is a very complex problem so it’s going to take a multi layered solution and approach,” says Marisa Hebble.

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